The moderating impact of taste award on the interplay between perceived taste,perceived quality and brand trust

Based on the cue utilization theory and stimulus-organism-response (S–O-R) theory, the objective of the study is to investigate the moderating role of taste award (taste awarded vs. without taste award) on the linkages among perceived taste, perceived quality, brand trust, and willingness to buy. With this aim, the data were gathered from respondents using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation model results provided support for the positive relationship among perceived taste, quality, and brand trust. Brand trust was also revealed as a predictor of willingness to buy. The findings also support the intervening role of perceived quality and brand trust. Multi-group analyses reveal that the influence of perceived taste on perceived quality and brand trust is significantly accentuated by the taste award. Additionally, the interplay between brand trust and willingness to buy is higher in the awarded brand. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for brand producers and retailers are discussed based on the research findings.     

Marketplace orchestration of taste: insights from the Bridgewater Hall

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to explore how a concert hall can orchestrate and shape individuals’ classical music tastes. The paper is based on an 8-month ethnography at the Bridgewater Hall concert venue in Manchester. Our emergent findings illustrate how classical music tastes are influenced via the spatial meanings of the concert hall. These meanings include various physical, historical and sociocultural aspects that are revealed in the context of the Bridgewater Hall. Our study contributes to various streams of consumer culture theory research and opens up avenues for future research on the interrelationships of space and place with taste.     

The making of modern champagne: how and why the taste for and the taste of champagne changed in nineteenth century Britain

ABSTRACT

Between 1800 and 1900, the taste of and for champagne in Britain changed entirely. From a sweet, and often, still wine it became both universally sparkling and extremely dry. Its usage also changed; drunk on its own or with sweet desserts in 1800, an accompaniment to savoury dishes and roast meats by 1900. How and why did these changes occur? Letters exchanged between the champagne houses and their London agents document changing styles of production whilst the changing nature of British taste can be tracked from the British press, from the many contemporary wine books and the records of the dominant distributive firm of W. & A. Gilbey. Using the Social Practice Theory of Shove and Pantzar and building on Leibenstein’s ground-breaking 1950 article on “snob” and “bandwagon” effects this article suggests a framework for understanding taste changes in British society.     

Less light,better bite: How ambient lighting influences taste perceptions

Atmospheric factors within a retail environment provide efficient and effective methods for influencing customer behavior. Drawing on the concept of sensory compensation, this research investigates how ambient lighting influences taste perceptions. Three studies demonstrate that dim lighting enhances taste perceptions. The results of Studies 1a and 1b provide support that low lighting positively influences consumers' perceived taste of single taste dimension foods (e.g., sweet). Study 2 shows the number of taste dimensions (e.g., sweet vs. sweet and salty) stimulated serves as a boundary condition, attenuating the significant effect of dim lighting on taste perceptions.     

Following brands on Twitter: an extension of theory of planned behavior

Due to its immediacy and efficiency, Twitter has recently emerged as a form of marketing communication tool that offers unique advantages for two-way communication between marketers and consumers. This study examines brand-following behavior on Twitter using the Ajzen's model of theory of planned behavior (TPB). Results show that attitude toward brand following, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and brand attachment are positively associated with intention to follow brands on Twitter. Consumers’ intention to create (i.e., intention to tweet at brands) and disseminate (i.e., intention to retweet the links of brands) brand-related information, as well as purchase intention, are the outcomes of intention to follow brands on Twitter. Overall findings suggest that TPB model can be used to predict Twitter users’ brand-following behavior. More importantly, our finding that brand attachment drives consumer intention to follow brands on Twitter extends the TPB framework. This study provides both theoretical and managerial implications.     

Looking good or feeling good? The dual role of the body in the taste transformation process

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the process of taste transformation in body-centered consumption fields and the role of the body in this process. Although previous studies have investigated taste acquisition, the body is still commonly understood only as the enactor of the practices in this process. By analyzing the context of healthy living, this study identifies the body as a lived-in trigger of taste transformation and the main place where change unfolds. It demonstrates how, after taste transformation, the body becomes a lived-in enactor of practices that display mastery of the tenets of a taste regime but is still captured in normative systems that animate the desire for change. The findings reveal that the body is both situated in normative beauty systems and an embodied enactor of practices and that by unveiling its dual role, it allows individuals to navigate distinction-over and distinction-between.     

Consuming abjection: an examination of death and disgust in the black metal scene

This paper examines abjection in the context of the extreme (black) metal scene. Moving beyond the ritual-heavy, community work that dominates much of the death-related consumption literature, our study pieces together death, violence, misanthropy, blood and social tensions to create novel insights into the consumption of disgust. Based on our interview and participant observation methodologies, we present work that explains how death-oriented consumption and abjection is manifested for some consumers and actually plays a role as an affront to mainstream orientations and the greater social order. Additionally, our work indicates that the use of abjection can be seen as a boundary and source of delineation between the “acceptable” and the “unacceptable” in society.     

The influence of social capital on local retail patronage in an urban setting

Local retail stores are currently facing intense competition from both online retailers and large chain stores. An understanding of local retail store patronage (i.e., patronage of retail stores in one's own community) is essential to the survival and growth of local retailers. Drawing on Social Capital Theory, we theorize and show with store-level survey data the influence of social capital (community attachment and reciprocity) on local retail store patronage in a large urban setting. We find that the impact of social factors differs for residents within the community compared to those outside of the community. We also demonstrate the importance of social factors in comparison to non-social factors. These findings contribute to the literature by extending the impact of social capital on local retail store patronage beyond rural settings, providing insight into urban consumers' decision to patronize local retail stores, and highlighting the impact of community boundaries. These findings also generate practical recommendations for local merchants and stress the importance of building reciprocal relationships with local customers as well as varying communications across community boundaries.     

The CEO endorser and message source credibility: an empirical investigation of antecedents and consequences

This article investigates the antecedents and consequences of source credibility within the context of the relatively new but growing phenomenon of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) endorsers. The study results indicate that source credibility is a central determinant of a CEO endorsers' ability to effect desired outcome states. Results also indicate that the effect of message source credibility on purchase intentions, though strong, is not direct because beliefs about critical product attributes mediate the effect of a message source's credibility on behavioural intentions. The results of the study also indicate that models of source credibility derived from the celebrity endorser literature do not generalize to the CEO endorser context. Specifically, the attractiveness and expertise of the message source had no significant impact on receivers' perceptions of credibility.     

Synchronising retail and space: using urban squares for competitive place differentiation

This essay probes the critical dimensions of consumer‐culture theory (CCT) by investigating managerial tendencies toward integrating consumers from above or even imposing culture from on high, rather than viewing consumer culture as something that arises from the consumers themselves. Illustrations based on the use of background music or Muzak support concerns that culture is degraded by marketers as a means of social control. Attempts of an organization such as Pipedown to resist background music present an impression of futility in the face of hegemony. Hence we draw attention to the apparently predominant commercial thrust toward and mass susceptibility to manipulation, as born out by the ubiquity of background music and by the apparent lack of meaningful counter‐play by consumers. Noting the lacunae in our critical understanding of consumption, markets, and culture from the CCT perspective, we consider the ideological consequences.     

Locally Sourced Restaurant: Consumers Willingness to Pay

This study tested (1) the theory of planned behavior to identify factors influencing customers’ willingness to pay more when visiting a locally sourced restaurant, and (2) assesses the effect of health consciousness and community attachment on willingness to pay more through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in visiting a locally sourced restaurant. A total of 423 responses were analyzed using a two-step approach of structural equation modeling. The findings indicated that health consciousness and community attachment positively influences attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in visiting a locally sourced restaurant, which ultimately influence willingness to pay more.     

Mediation as an Ethical Adjunct of Stakeholder Theory

A driving force behind the evolution of the stakeholder concept is the potential of negative outcomes for an organization as the result of conflict between that organization and its stakeholders. Where conflict does arise between an organization and stakeholder how might it be resolved in a manner compatible with stakeholder theory? Applying feminist ethical theory as a theoretical basis for stakeholder theory, mediation provides an appropriate process for resolving such disputes in comparison to traditional adversarial strategies. This paper discusses the attributes of mediation, and its potential benefits as a method to resolve disputes between businesses and their stakeholders.     

Health Belief Model and Healthy Consumption: Toward an Integrated Model

Consumers have evolved from scavengers of necessity to scavengers of excess. Citizens of industrialized countries have little survival motivation to forage for food, yet a dominance of food cues in the environment exacerbates eating control. As a result, behavioral strategies are needed to mediate these negative effects. However, healthful consumption likelihood has been an extremely elusive measure to predict. Most studies are able to show only an incremental amount of variance explained in consumers’ behavioral intentions. Moreover, generalizability is often limited to college student data. In response, the present research uses structural equation modeling methods to investigate the complexity of this domain. The results from a representative panel of U.S. adult consumers show that motivation, social support, and food features all have significant effects on healthful consumption likelihood. Finally, several of these effects are mediated by the importance of healthy eating and convenience barriers. The final structural model explains 58% of the variance in healthy eating—a significant contribution to extant research.     

The art of letting go: creating dispossession paths toward an unextended self

This paper describes a collaborative art/research project that afforded individuals who have difficulty letting go of objects the opportunity to give up meaningful possessions so that objects could take on new meanings, immortalized in the art form, such as photographic exhibitions, sculptures, and collages. Written stories accompanying the donation of these objects revealed these objects' strong attachments to self. Findings reveal that the psychological and emotional dispossession of objects was aided by two interrelated sub-processes: (1) reconciling alienable/inalienable properties of possessions through disposition practices and (2) negotiating self-identity incongruities in relation to material possession attachments. Art became a catalyst for a positive dispossession experience, which in turn promoted consumer's goals toward an unextended self. Instead of becoming de-constituted, alienable rubbish, or re-commoditized objects in material markets, these possessions were reconstituted by undergoing a meaning transformation that elevated their cultural status in the material system.     

Moving up in taste: Enhanced projected taste and freshness of moving food products

Can implied motion enhance consumer judgment of food freshness and taste? Freshness plays an important role in determining anticipated taste. Different perceptual cues may influence judgments of freshness. While some cues such as coloring and bruising play an obvious role, the authors argue that cues that on face value appear unrelated to freshness may also influence judgments of freshness. Specifically, the authors argue that humans have learned to relate movement to food freshness, and that this leads perceived motion to generate enhanced judgments of freshness, and, consequently, projected taste. This proposition is demonstrated in four studies. The studies show that the inclusion of implied motion in food pictures leads to elevated judgments of freshness and projected taste.     

Impact of Online Reviews on Consumer’s Hotel Booking Intentions: Does Brand Image Mediate?

Abstract

The recent trend suggests that people are more inclined to online hotel reviews to take online hotel booking decisions. The present study argues that when consumers are exposed to online hotel reviews, it draws an impression of the hotel brand in the mind of consumers, resulting in influence their hotel booking intentions. The current study determines the mediation effects of brand image between credible online hotel reviews and consumers’ hotel booking intentions. To ascertain the uni-dimensionality of the scales, the present study executes exploratory factor analysis. The ensure the internal consistency of the variable scales, the study determines Cronbach’s alpha. To measure the mediation effects, the present study performs structural equation modeling bootstrapping method. Data analysis reveals that marketers should look at hedonic brand image, which ultimately influences consumers’ hotel booking intentions. This is a unique study that ascertains the type of brand image that actually mediates between the impact of online hotel reviews and consumers’ hotel booking intentions. In addition, the paper furnishes theoretical background on how people interpret online hotel reviews and its effects.     

The Effects of Idealized Advertising Imagery on Social Comparisons,Psychological and Emotional Outcomes,and Consumer Vulnerability: A Conceptual Model

This article integrates marketing and social psychology theories and findings into a conceptual model that describes the conditions for which idealized advertising images induce positive (or negative) consumer outcomes. Extending Bessenoff's moderated mediation model, the authors propose that: (1) effect of social comparison on the relationship between exposure to idealized advertising images and psychological/emotional outcomes will be moderated by internalization of ideals and self-discrepancy; (2) effect of psychological/emotional outcomes on the relationship between social comparison and consumer vulnerability will be moderated by attainability of ideals; and (3) product claims should moderate the relationship between psychological and emotional outcomes and consumer vulnerability.     

Antecedents and consequences of brand attachment: A literature review and research agenda

Consumers develop powerful connections with brands and they feel a strong bond or attachment to favourite brands that can lead to re-purchase behaviour, reduced price sensitivity and increased customer loyalty. Gaining greater in-depth knowledge of brand attachment offers a powerful means of understanding and facilitates modelling the mechanisms for achieving greater profitability and increased revenue for firms. The purpose of this paper is first to map the antecedents, mediators and consequences of brand attachment; second to provide scholars with a map of prior research as a starting point for future research; and third to offer insights to extend understanding of how consumers relate to and engage with brands. The antecedents to brand attachment are categorized under five headings: brand-related concepts; self-brand connection and connection; congruence and the self; emotional drivers of brand attachment; and service-related concepts. The consequences of brand attachment are categorized as: brand loyalty and switching resistance; purchase intentions and willingness to pay; and word of mouth. The review and future research agenda utilize the Theory, Context, Characteristics, Methodology structure: (T) theory and concepts; (C) context and industry sectors; (C) characteristics (antecedents, mediators and consequences); (M) methods used in prior research. Recommendations focus on: social media marketing; social media marketing influencers and psychological ownership.